Overview of Basic and Dynamic Disks

XP supports two types of hard disk storage. Basic disks and Dynamic disks.

Basic Disks

The traditional type of storage (In earlier versions of Microsoft Windows).
XP sees all disks as basic by default.
{basic volumes}
You must configure a basic disk with at least one partition
3 types of partitions

Primary

Up to 4 on a computer running Windows

Extended

A way to exceed 4 primary partition limit. Serve as a shell for logical partitions.

Logical

Used for organizing files. Are visible no matter which operating system is started.

Dynamic Disks

You can divide into many volume. Contiguous or noncontiguous disk space.
XP supports the following types of dynamic volumes.

Simple Volume

Just a regular disk.

Spanned Volume

How to make two or more physical hard drives into one volume.

Striped Volume

Making two or more physical hard drives splitting into many different chunks this increases performance.

Managing Hard Disk by Using the Disk Management Tool

How to Create a Primary Partition

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel
2. In the Control Panel window, click Performance And Maintenance
3. In the Performance and Maintenance window, click Administrative Tools
4. In the Administrative Tools menu, double-click Computer Management
5. In the Computer Management window, expand the Storage container, and then click Disk Management.
6. In Disk Management, right-click the unallocated space in which you want to create the primary partition, and then select New Partition
7. On the welcome page for the New Partition Wizard, click Next.
8. On the select Partition Type page, click Primary Parition and click Next
9. On the Specify Partition Size page, enter the amount of disk space in megabytes (MB) that you want to use for this partition and then click Next
10. On the Assign Drive Letter Or Path page, choose an available drive letter or a path for a volume mount point, and then click Next
11. On the Format Partition page, click Format This Partition, select a file system, and then asign a volume label, click Next
12. On the Completion page, click Finish to create and format the partition

How to Create Extended Partitions

1. In Disk Management, right-click the unallocated space in which you want to create the extended partition and select New Partition
2. On the Welcome page for the Create Partition Wizard, click Next
3. On the Select Partition Type page, click Extended Partition, and then click Next
4. On the Specify Partition Size page, enter the amount of disk space in MB that you want to use for this partition, and then click Next.
5. On the Completion page, click Finish to create the extended partition

How to Create Logical Drives

1. In Disk Management, right-click the free space in the extended partition in which you want to create the logical drive, and then click Next
2. On the Welcome to the New Partition Wizard page, click Next.
3. On the Select Partition Type page, click the type of partition that you want to create, and then click Next.
4. On the Specify Partition Size page, specify the size in megabytes (MB) of the partition that you want to create, and then click Next.
5. On the Assign Drive Letter or Path page, enter a drive letter or drive path, and then click Next.
6. On the Format Partition page, specify the formatting options that you want, and then click Next.
7. On the Completing the New Partition Wizard page, verify that the options that you selected are correct, and then click Finish.